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☆ Freetrade, Britain's answer to Robinhood, posted its first quarterly profit
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Freetrade reported adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of £100,000 ($124,863) in the first quarter of 2024, according to unaudited financial statements shared with CNBC. Freetrade still generated a loss of £8.3 million in 2023, down from the £28.8 million loss it racked up the year before. "We defied difficult market conditions and delivered healthy growth in 2023 while dramatically reducing losses" in 2022, said Adam Dodds, CEO and founder of Freetrade. Net inflows totalled £130 million in the first quarter, too, as retail investor activity grew in response to resurgent markets last year. Equity markets saw serious drops in 2022 as a result of macroeconomic uncertainty and higher interest rates stoked by Russia's full-fledged invasion of Ukraine, which triggered a risk-off trade around the world.

Persons: Rafael Henrique, Freetrade, Adam Dodds, who've, Dodds, we've, Russia's Organizations: Getty, CNBC, Freetrade, Equity Locations: Ukraine

☆ Crowdfunding Hollywood: How studio Legion M taps fans-turned-investors to make movies
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-03 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Emma Mcintyre | Getty ImagesWhen Paul Scanlan and Jeff Annison first dreamed up their production studio, Legion M, they set out to build not just a company, but a community. While crowdfunding is not a new concept, Legion M is taking it to the next level — giving ordinary moviegoers a seat at Hollywood's table. That's what sets Legion M apart. For Legion M's "My Dead Friend Zoe," the company collected funds from Legion M investors and from larger, more traditional Hollywood financiers, including Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce. He said working with Legion M "felt very natural from the first call."

Persons: William Shatner, Emma Mcintyre, Paul Scanlan, Jeff Annison, Jay, Bob, Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Simon Pegg, Minnie Driver, Nandor Fodor, Zach Braff's, Rob Thomas, Veronica Mars, Annison, Zoe, Travis Kelce, Chris Temple, Glauber Contessoto, Zach Ingrasci, Erik Tanner, Frazer Harrison Organizations: Legion, San Diego, Theatre, Business, Amazon Prime, Kansas City Chiefs, Spring Studio, Getty, Angel Studios, Con, Paramount Theater Locations: San Diego , California, Hollywood, New York City, Austin , Texas

I asked financial planners where I could invest my money other than the stock market. Early last year, when I finally decided to invest some of the cash sitting idle in my high-yield savings account, I turned to the stock market. I've come a long way since then, optimizing my stock market strategy to include studying earnings reports and being more strategic with my picks. Real estateA good amount of my friends have turned to real estate investing over the past few years. "You can invest in real estate through REITs — Real Estate Investment Trusts — which pool together investor money to purchase, and sometimes operate, different forms of property.

Persons: —, Jason Dall'Acqua, Carolyn Yun, Privately, Yun, Get, Marguerita Cheng, Cheng Organizations: Service, Investment, SEC, Venture Locations: REITs —

☆ Real-estate crowdfunding is a house of cards. PeerStreet's bankruptcy reveals why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

Like many PeerStreet investors who spoke with Insider, Mincher has a strong résumé. Another form of crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding, works a bit like the stock market without the onerous and expensive process of initial public offerings. The PeerStreet investors who spoke with Insider said the outcome of this case could determine whether they stick with real-estate crowdfunding. Others, such as Fundrise, have moved away from crowdfunding in favor of a model for private real-estate investment trusts, similar to the BREIT later offered by Blackstone. Fritton, the former Patch of Land CEO, said Fundrise's fund model was the wave of the future for real-estate crowdfunding.

Persons: Michael Burry, Christian Bale, Burry's, Crowdfunding, Burry, Andreessen Horowitz, they're, Braun Mincher, PeerStreet, who've, Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein, Brew Johnson, he's, Braun, Mincher, —, it's, Michael Burry Astrid Stawiarz, Ian Ippolito, Ippolito, John McNellis, PeerStreet Ippolito, McNellis, El, Marc Andreessen, Phil McCarten, Silverstein, wouldn't, Sean Quinn, Doug Lyon, Lyon, that's, Jason Fritton, Kirk Brett, there's, Brett, iFunding, CrowdStreet, Nightingale's Elie Schwartz, Nightingale, Schwartz, Yieldstreet, Fritton Organizations: CNBC, Main, PeerStreet, Facebook, McNellis Partners, Funding Trust, Fairfield University, Magnetar, Adler, Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Justice, Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, Investors, Blackstone Locations: Delaware, El Segundo , California, crowdfunding, There's

☆ The cofounder of Fanhouse explains why she resigned from the startup and what she would have done differently if she started it today — including not raising VC funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Shriya Bhattacharya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Creator Rosie Nguyen started Fanhouse in 2020 with two other cofounders. Nguyen explains what she would do differently as a founder if she were building the startup today. Nguyen launched Fanhouse in 2020 as a subscription platform for creators to monetize, share exclusive behind-the-scenes content, and connect with top fans. The added investments helped Fanhouse in many ways, like hiring more staff and paying creators more money through the platform. She'd also tap into equity crowdfunding like creator startup Gumroad did.

Persons: Rosie Nguyen, Fanhouse, Nguyen, Lucy Guo, @jasminericegirl, Khoi Le, Jerry Meng, VCs, Jeff Morris Jr, Andreessen Horowitz, She'd, she'd, Le, Meng, shouldn't Organizations: Twitter, Investors, didn't Locations: American, Los Angeles, Fanhouse, VCs

☆ From banking giants to lending up-and-comers — here are the world's top 200 fintech companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

Statista identified 40 firms as top digital payments companies. While digital payments is often the area that draws most investor buzz, lending generates more money in financial services. Statista identified 25 fintech companies that fall into the category of top alternate lending firms. They include American small business lending firm Biz2Credit, Irish e-commerce lending company Wayflyer, and Latvian loan refinancing startup Mintos. Digital business solutions

Persons: Monzo, there's, Statista, Afterpay, It's, Binance, eToro, Equity crowdfunding, hasn't, Peter Hazlehurst Organizations: JPMorgan —, Orange, Digital, U.S, SEC, European, Education, Equity, Republic, Tech, Federal Reserve, Bank of England, CNBC, Solaris Locations: fintech, Europe, Nigeria, Orange, Africa, Terra, U.S, Cayman Islands, American, Latvian, U.K

☆ Stakeholder Labs sees an opportunity helping companies convert customers into shareholders. Here's how the fintech backed by a Reddit cofounder plans to do it.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Paige Hagy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Stakeholder Labs helps businesses identify and engage with retail investors. Stakeholder Labs provides plug-in software that verifies a company's shareholders and measures customer behavior with a goal of driving long-term loyalty. "Not trying to convert that customer into a shareholder is the biggest missed opportunity," Max Goldstein, head of marketing and shareholder experience at Stakeholder Labs, added. Stakeholder Lab's software, called Roundtable, is integrated directly into a company's website or app, allowing customers to self-identify as a shareholder. Stakeholder Labs customers range from small to mid-sized publicly traded companies that tend to be more agile and willing to try new technologies.

☆ This fintech helping companies engage and build loyalty with retail investors just nabbed funding from Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Paige Hagy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Stakeholder Labs helps businesses identify and engage with retail investors. CEO and cofounder Matt Joanou observed the untapped potential of retail investors while at Reddit. This startup wants to help companies engage with their retail investors, and it just got backing from an investor well-versed in building active communities. Stakeholder Labs provides plug-in software that verifies a company's shareholders and measures customer behavior with a goal of driving long-term loyalty. Stakeholder Lab's software, called Roundtable, is integrated directly into a company's website or app, allowing customers to self-identify as a shareholder.

☆ Here's how to invest in the AI craze, according to ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Carla Mozée | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

"There are several ways to invest in AI," ChatGPT answered. "Purchase shares of private AI companies," it also responded. ChatGPT's charm stems from its natural-language ability, so I asked it:What companies can I invest in for exposure to natural language processing? Microsoft (MSFT): Microsoft has a number of different NLP products, including Microsoft Cognitive Services and the Azure Machine Learning platform. But I asked ChatGPT anyway: Can I invest in ChatGPT?

The Musk video by reAlpha included “robust disclaimers” establishing it as satire, said Christie Currie, chief marketing officer. The first Musk video went live days after reAlpha launched a public offering under regulation A+ in 2021. But the ease of creating deepfakes means some celebrities could soon be deluged by ads featuring their unauthorized, but very convincing likenesses, Mr. Moss said. At the same time, the language in contracts written years before the technology existed may be vague enough to allow marketers to use existing footage to create new deepfake videos. Companies most often request celebrity deepfake videos to use internally for training, communications, parties or other purposes—but not for ads, said Daynen Biggs, owner of Slack Shack Films, which produced the Elon Musk videos.

Insider asked 12 top VCs what ad and marketing tech companies excited them the most this year. Check out the 19 most promising adtech startups, and what they do that makes them unique. It hopes to raise a Series A funding round in the coming months. Emperia is currently raising its next funding round. Why it's on the list: Tech companies are being scrutinized for their wasting energy consumption, and the digital advertising industry is no exception.

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